Official: LA Deficit May Balloon $50M Under Villaraigosa Budget

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — The city’s Chief Administrative Officer said on Wednesday that the mayor’s looming budget plans could unravel nearly $50 million in savings that would otherwise trim the deficit to $4.1 million in the coming year.

In his upbeat report to City Council, Miguel Santana pledged no more furloughs for the remainder of this fiscal year, but the city’s reserve fund, now at $191 million, needed to be further beefed up.

Santana also wants the council to delay starting a final class of police recruits through the academy until after the start of the next fiscal year to reduce costs, as approved by voters in the form of reduced pension and health benefits.

Although the city cut spending by nearly $1 billion over the past two years, Santana told the council that the city workforce has been reduced by about 4,000, with about 500 layoffs.

L.A.’s workforce was roughly the same size as during former Mayor Richard Riordan’s second term in the mid-1990s, he added.

In his report, Santana cautioned that the deficit for the current year could increase $30 million to $50 million by the time Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa releases his budget for 2011-12 in the coming weeks.

Despite two downgrades last year, he said the city’s credit rating was holding steady, but one more downgrade could prevent the city from borrowing in certain areas. When bond ratings go down, the interest rates charged to the city to float bonds goes up.

“There is a level of anxiety out there,” he said, referring to buyers of municipal bonds.

The projected deficit for the fiscal year starting July 1, however, will be about $350 million, he said.

He said the biggest “driver” of the city’s future deficits will be employee costs — salaries, health benefits, pension — and revenues are expected to keep dropping. Department of Water and Power cash infusions are expected to be reduced, he said.

By fiscal 2015-16, the city’s pension cost is expected to grow to $1.2 billion per year, he said.

“Ultimately is what is needed is a new revenue source,” he said.

Avoiding more furloughs would be unlikely, he said, without some concessions from city employee unions.

Why these politicians don’t think about how to bring revenue to Los Angeles instead of cutting back on services? For starters, I would suggest legalizing certain drugs, iincluding marihuana and collect taxed on these. Go back to Roman Times and learn how they dealt with deficiencies, one was legalizing prostitution.

Maybe the city should rethink it’s “Safe Haven” status for criminal immigrants. Think how much money would be saved by not having to pay the medical bills of the illegals or the cost to educate an illegal. And that is just for starters.

Let’s stop being jerks and bigots by attacking Mexicans. Illegals do not vote and they do not elect anyone to anything. They add far more to the economy that they take out.

Look who does take money out. Eli Broad a billionaire gets $52 M from the city to build his own parking garage next to his art gallery. Look at the CRA’s Hollywood-Highland Complex which cost $625 M to build and then was sold to friend of Garcetti, CIM Group, for only $201 M? Where did the $424 Million go?